I've often heard that a little home cooking can go along way in turning around our misfortunes. I don't think anybody in the San Jose Sharks organization feels that way right about now.
San Jose has been anything but cooking lately, especially at home.
Mired in a six-game losing streak (0-5-1), the Sharks have just four wins at home and have dropped four of the last five at the SAP since a six-game road sweep in mid-November.
The Sharks have not looked good and their offense has been anything but encouraging.
So the timing of the upcoming five-game road trip, which begins tonight in Montreal, couldn't have been any better.
For whatever reason, the Sharks have been a better road team than home team this season. Besides a decided difference in wins and losses, San Jose is scoring almost half a goal more per game on the road (2.81 vs. 2.34) and allowing almost half a goal less per game on the road (2.5vs. 2.92).
They will need that trend to continue tonight because they certainly have their work cut out for them.
Tonight's opponent, the Montreal Canadiens sit atop the Atlantic Division and are one of the Eastern Conference's best teams at 20-8-3 with 43 points.
What to watch for...
- Can the Sharks end the streak? San Jose is 11th in the Western Conference and could drop to 13th with a loss tonight and wins by Calgary and Colorado tonight. Not good.
- Logan Couture is expected to miss the entire road trip. The Sharks are 11-13 without Couture in the lineup. That's not good at all.
- Brent Burns and his minus-15 is good enough for dead last among NHL defenseman. That's also not good at all. But, hey...he has 10 goals.
- Joe Pavelski has one goals in his last eight games. Also, not good.
- The Canadiens ended a four-game losing streak with a 3-1 win over Ottawa on Saturday.
Thanks for reading, Steve